It's Time To
by Adreus
Summary: "You know," says Nico wearily, in a half-hearted defense of his hobby, "Yu-Gi-Oh! requires a lot of strategy."


**Notes: **Debated putting this under crossover instead of just PJO, but decided since it's for the _game_ and not really the _series_, it belongs here. That said, you'll want some knowledge of the YGO TCG's mechanics to get this completely.

This was completely inspired by Abyssopelagic, by the way.

**Disclaimer: **_Percy Jackson and the Olympians _is property of Rick Riordan; the _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ _TCG _is owned by Konami, and I claim no rights to either of them.

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><p><em>It's Time To<em>

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><p><em>Finding Nico<em> has become something of a sport. Percy thinks he's not too bad at it – given an hour to locate his target, Percy can now find the kid in a record fifteen minutes if he's still at camp. It's not even that Nico's trying to not be seen – what's actually the problem is that Nico's weird beyond Percy's definition—and Percy has quite the mythology respecting definition. Sometimes it's just insane—one second Nico's in the new Hades Cabin, tidying up his belongings (he doesn't live there, but that doesn't mean he can't store some things he'd rather not leave lying around in the Underworld), and the next second he's high up in a tree, talking to some new campers down at the base about death and its inevitability. One minute, he's having lunch with Tyson down by the strawberry orchards, and the next he's playing _Pokémon _with some guys from the Hermes Cabin, explaining to them the most efficient way to breed the perfect Magikarp. One hour he tells Percy he'll meet him at the Big House, and the next—

"Hah! Found you!"

—He's sitting at a picnic table, across from one of the new campers that Percy doesn't recognize, with a set of cards spread out between them.

Percy walks over to the table and blinks as he sits himself down. There's probably a "hello" or a "where the hell have you been" in order, but what ends up coming out of Percy's mouth is a very perplexed, "…Are those _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ cards?" as he points at the offenders.

"Yup," says Nico matter-of-factly, and he doesn't feel the need to go on. There are two stacks of the cards on the table; presumably one deck for Nico, and one for the other guy, both backed by the signature vortex-like background that Percy remembers from, like, the third grade. Nico's cards are covered in clear plastic protective sleeves, but the other guy's aren't, and they look old and worn, like Percy's did when his mom found them two years ago in a box under his bed and asked if she could throw them away (something to which Percy had no qualms, since all of his cards weren't even _his_, really; they were really just a collection of useless ones that people threw at him – except for one, _Levia-Dragon – Daedalus, _which he kept).

"...Wait," says Percy, as though his eyes deceive him, "Seriously?"

"Uh-huh," says Nico, and there's a hint of annoyance in his voice as he draws five cards from his deck for his hand, and his opponent does the same. "You can go first, Seth."

Percy doesn't catch Nico's annoyance—or if he does, he flat out ignores it, because the sudden reappearance of _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ in his life is throwing him a little off guard. "I thought you said you were over all this stuff," Percy says, as Seth draws a card and begins his turn. Seth looks anxiously at Nico, sets his cards, and nervously declares that his turn is over, looking more-or-less like he's about to piss his pants.

Nico draws a card. "I did," he speaks smoothly, playing down a spell card that Percy vaguely recognizes; it starts some kind of manic combo that allows Nico to summon twice in one turn and attack three times, clearing Seth's field and dealing him a ridiculous amount of damage that Nico scribbles down on a piece of paper next to them. "But the other day I was going through my old stuff to sell my _Magic: The Gathering _singles, and I found my old deck. End my turn."

Nico once again stops as though his thought's finished, as though he's answered all of Percy's unvoiced questions.

"...And?" prods Percy.

"And, uh, I met Seth when I was about to leave to sell them, and he wanted to buy them. Naturally, I challenged him to a duel."

"Naturally," repeats Percy sarcastically.

Nico catches Percy's sarcasm, and for a moment pauses in his duel to finally look at the older boy. Sometimes, Percy forgets that Nico, physically and mentally, is barely a teenager; it's hard to remember that the guy who summoned armies of skeletons in the middle of the Battle for Olympus had a voice like a girl's about a month ago.

"You know," says Nico wearily, in a half-hearted defense of his hobby, "_Yu-Gi-Oh! _requires a lot of strategy."

"I saw the show," admits Percy, smirking. "I liked it when Yugi kicked Kaiba's ass."

"They played wrong in the show," Nico informs him. "Completely disregarded half the rules and made up the rest on the spot." Nico looks back to their game, and licks his lips as he mulls over a strategy; as one comes to him, his eyes glint, and from his hand he plays some level two midget and announces, in a voice that makes it seem like he's won the duel, the match, and tonight's upcoming Capture the Flag: "I'm tuning." Then he swipes away all three of his monsters, and replaces them with one he pulls out from his pocket—something called _Dark Highlander_, with a white background the likes of which Percy's never seen. Seth nearly faints.

"Wait, did you just pull a card out of your pocket?" asks Percy. "Isn't that, I don't know, cheating?"

"I synchro summoned," Nico explains, rolling his eyes. "Also, I'm pretty sure I win."

"…Synchro what?"


End file.
